Kevin O’Leary Is Unmoved by Your Tears

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Kevin O’LearyCreditEva O’Leary for The New York Times

Interview by Dan Amira

Jan. 17, 2018

“Shark Tank,” the reality show on which aspiring entrepreneurs jockey for investments, is in its ninth season. Now there are people pitching you who have already-established businesses with millions of dollars in revenue. Do you miss the early seasons when some dude would show up with something he duct-taped together in his garage? No. I think the platform has evolved. It can take an idea and turn it into a real business, and it can also accelerate an existing business. You take a company, their story comes on “Shark Tank” and all of a sudden they become No. 1 in America, and their customer-acquisition cost is zero.

Is any of the drama on the show manufactured? Is there a producer in your ear going “get in a beef with Mark Cuban right now”? You don’t need anybody to tell you to get into a beef with Cuban. That just happens.

“Shark Tank” airs updates for its successful businesses, but viewers don’t hear about all the businesses that fail. Is there a danger in glamorizing entrepreneurship? No. Even in the updates you see how brutal people’s lives are. Entrepreneurship is a personal sacrifice for a long period of time. I never saw my kids grow up — they just went from zero to teenagers when I was traveling the world selling software, and yet today they enjoy certain freedoms that I could never have afforded had I not been successful.

Many contestants have a sad or inspirational back story. What goes through your head when they start crying during a pitch? Tears buy you nothing. At the end of the day, the market is a brutal place. Nobody cares that you had a little dog when you were in high school that you fell in love with. Nobody gives a [expletive]. You’re now in the real world, competing with people in Mumbai and Shanghai and Hong Kong who want to eat your lunch.

You’ve said you’re not mean on the show: You just tell the truth. Have you ever felt bad afterward about something you’ve said to an entrepreneur? Never. Business is so binary: Either you make money or you lose it. It’s so disingenuous to say to an entrepreneur, “I won’t write you a check, but you should keep going.” I would rather say — and I do — “This has no merit; you’re going to lose all your money.” I’m the only shark that tells the truth. The others make themselves feel better by lying to these poor people who are going to lose all their money. You deserve to burn in hell for that.

Your co-sharks deserve to burn in hell? For that? They should.

Last year you were the favorite in the race to become leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, but you dropped out because you felt you couldn’t speak French well enough to win Quebec in a general election. Have you been practicing since then? I have been. I felt that I could bring something to the Canadian market as the prime minister, because Canada’s incredibly mismanaged at a provincial and federal level. Would I do it again? Probably not the same way. Am I glad I did it? Yes.

If you did run again, what would you do differently? I’d be completely bilingual.

What’s the most Canadian thing about you? I’m born from Lebanese and Irish parents. The greatest thing about Canada is that it has allowed anybody to come from anywhere and be accepted in that society. That’s the biggest difference in policy when people say I am like Trump. How can I be Trump? I’m half Lebanese, half Irish. I wouldn’t exist if there were a wall around Canada!

I’ve heard you say one of the books that most influenced your success was “Atlas Shrugged.” How did that help you? I realized that in capitalism, either you believe in the intrinsic concept about the pursuit of wealth and why it’s good for you, or you don’t. I never question it. I never even think for a second that it was not the right path. To me there is darkness and light. Capitalism is the light. Socialism is the darkness. Nothing could ever change my mind about that.

Interview has been condensed and edited.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page 58 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Kevin O’Leary Is Unmoved by Your Tears. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe